You're convinced that having a social network site makes strategic sense for your organization, cause or program. You've explored how to build one. Now what?
Communispace offers ten lessons learned from its work with over 200 online communities. Among them:
- Invite the right people, keep it private and small.
- View members as advisors.
- Find the social glue.
- Pay even more attention to what members initiate.
- Don't ask too much, too often.
And my favorite: 68 percent of members in their communities are actively participating within 48 hours of joining. One reason: create community building activities that help people quickly understand what the community is about, make them feel comfortable participating, and allow them the means over time to get to know one another.
Here are a few ideas to get you started if you're still at Step #1:
- Stay in touch with your volunteers and allow them to keep up with and inspire each other.
- Keep your distribution partners in the loop and sharing ideas, success stories and resources with each other.
- Link up like-minded program managers or researchers from across the country (or world).
- Enable your board members to continue interacting and exchanging ideas between meetings.
And keep in mind, you're not alone in wanting a more tailored and focused social network site [added link].
Image via Lynetter.
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